Strand Street, Frederiksted After Dark

822

Marvin E. Williams

The park lights color all dresses
purple, so that those who had scoured wardrobe

to find the perfect match between
chic blouse and earring on earlobe

look as fine as those wearing hits and misses.
A tourist boat’s horn startles to settle the scene,

a throng of tourists stagger out a bar,
holler a store of corny vacation curses

and, to honor the rum that strips them bare,
add a few off-balance ’50s calypso verses

that humor the natives in purple dresses
who, wanting such leisure, whisper wishes upon a star.

Those secret wishes might not take them far
beyond dumb labor and articulate dues,

but that’s why we seek balance in calypso verses;
that’s why we need not import the blues.